Imagine (a world of assessment without tests) (Episode 6)

This series, produced with The Edtech Podcast, explores the implications of and questions around future tech for education. Listen for insights from experts — including contrarians — from across industry, research, and academia. Get caught up with episodes 1-5.

How do we get beyond the tick-box or bubble filling exercise of exams and tests, whilst also measuring ‘progress’? In episode 6, we review ideas around ‘invisible assessment’ and question who benefits from ‘traditional’ and re-imagined forms of assessment, including games-based assessment. Can ‘tests’ be fun and should they be? How do we measure collaboration?

About the Author

Dr. Kristen DiCerbo

Dr. Kristen DiCerbo is the Vice President of Education Research and Learning Design at Pearson, where she leads a team of researchers and learning designers embedding what they know from learning science and assessment research into K-16 digital learning environments.

Kristen’s work centers on interactive technologies for learning and assessment, particularly the use of evidence from learner activity in games and simulations to understand what learners know and can do. She jokes that she only works with things that have three letter acronyms starting with E: Evidence-Centered Design, Exploratory Data Analysis, and (dabbling in) Educational Data Mining.

Kristen has been fortunate enough to participate in some exciting simulation- and game-based assessment projects, including work with GlassLab developing SimCityEDU and Mars Generation One. She also participated in the White House Game Jam.

Prior to joining Pearson, Kristen provided research support to the Networking Academies at Cisco and was a school psychologist in a local school district in Arizona. She has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from Hamilton College and received her Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at Arizona State University.